The Listening Ear

Another Example Of ELCA Disaster Response

Recently, the Western Iowa Synod e-Spirit email newsletter carried an article regarding the work of the ELCA’s Disaster Relief Response. Here’s what they reported: “The ELCA provided $75,000 in humanitarian relief June 26 to help meet the needs of an estimated 3.5 million people displaced from their homes in the Swat region of Pakistan because of recent military actions against the Taliban. The ELCA sent the funds to Church World Service (CWS) which is working to respond to the needs there, organizing distribution of food, non-food relief items and shelter kits that include tents, blankets and groundsheets. Read more on the ELCA Disaster Response Web site <http://www.elca.org/Our-Faith-In-Action/Responding-to-the-World/Disaster-Response.aspx” In my opinion, we can’t find a more responsible place to direct our contributions to help those affected by natural and human-caused disasters.

Anea And Seth At The Pool

I have created a brief video of our granddaughter, Anea, and her dad Seth in and around their backyard pool. Here is is for those who might like to watch it.

Anea & Seth At The Pool from Arlyn Norris on Vimeo.

The Next Steps

When St. Paul’s church council met last week, they discussed how to move forward with ministries in general and with the process of discovering the best ways to address our ministry needs. Here’s my summary of what seems to be taking shape.

1. The current members of the facility needs team is being contacted to see how many are willing to continue to serve. I think this is an appropriate time to do that. We shouldn’t assume that people are going to keep the same job forever. On the other hand, I hope that at least most of the team will consent to continue with the process.
3. The council began generating names of persons to add to the facility needs team. They want to include people did not vote for the proposal that was offered to the congregation at its last meeting.
5. While we continue with the discernment process regarding facilities, we want to move forward with our ministry. At its last meeting, the council approved plans to establish a new worship service this fall on Saturday evenings. The next step will be for the worship planning team to recruit musicians for that service and to finish planning the type of service to be offered. Eventually we’ll also want a core group of 50 persons to help the new service get started.
7. A group has been appointed to explore what kind of joint ministries might be possible with Zion. The group hopes to meet soon with representatives from Zion to discuss this.
9. The council also indicated that they want to continue to use Jim Nord as our consultant to help work through what needs to be done next. The council believes that Jim has the skills and the resources to keep us to move toward the plan that will be acceptable to the congregation.

I think that these steps will help us expand and strengthen our ministry in this community and enable us to make progress in coming up with a plan to address our facility needs. I also believe that God continues to guide this process and look forward to the direction that the Lord gives us.

Omaha Arts Festival

I spent some time at the Omaha Arts Festival this last weekend and had a chance to wander through the display booths. There is always a varied collection of works done by regional artists—photography, painting, sculpture, jewelry, fabric creations and lots more. I found a couple of things I like including a photo and a couple of things for gifts.

 I also had the opportunity to listen to several musical groups. The one I enjoyed the best by far was a contemporary Native American group called Brule. They combine some traditional instruments with electric guitar, steel flute, synthesizer and a drum set. 

I see by their schedule that the spend quite a bit of time in Branson, MO so if you think you might like contemporary Native American music, I'd encourage you to check them out.

Here's a link to their website where you can hear what they sound like, although I think they are even better live.

The Lady Of The Pond Is Back

I did some work on my pond yesterday. We have a statue of a lady pouring out of a container that we’ve had for quite a few years. It used to belong to Wanda’s parents, so it has some sentimental value. Any the lady had an accident a year ago. She tipped over on the ice in the winter and it broke her neck. This spring Wanda used bondo to fix her and then painted her again. She turned out pretty good. I got her mounted beside the pond and hooked up the pump so she can pour into the pond. She is solid cement and rather heavy. My back was telling me that I had done a little more lifting that it liked last night. Thankfully it’s feeling better now. Here’s a picture of the statue after she got mounted.